COVID-19: Time to draw some conclusions

The name will be familiar to some, others will recognize it when they see its photo. The epidemiologist Anthony Fauci He was one of the main characters during the pandemic COVID-19.

Many of the decisions made by various countries in the world were based on what was done in the United States. Dr. Fauci was the presidential advisor on infectious disease issues in that country during the pandemic, both in the administration of Donald Trump and in Joe Biden’s.

Last week, Fauci – who at the end of 2022 will leave his position as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the US National Institutes of Health – published an article on the magazine’s editorial page “Science Translational Medicine” titled “What Keeps Me Up at Night.” There he takes stock of the pandemic, assuming the mistakes made and the learnings gained.

Fauci confesses that what kept him up at night, before 2020, was the possibility of a pathogen appearing, spread through the respiratory route, causing considerable morbidity and mortality. “For the last three and a half years, we have all been living my worst nightmare: a deadly pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2, writes.

For the epidemiologist, during the pandemic there were two approaches: scientific and public health. He considers that the first was the most successful, since in 11 months from the moment the sequence of the virus was known, is unprecedented.”

However, in public health “the lack of communication and coordination between the states and the federal government ”. He adds that supply chain issues, among other issues, caused that country to get off to a slow start in its response to COVID-19.

Furthermore, it indicates that “misinformation has proven to be the enemy of good public health implementation not only in the US, but also in many countries around the world”.

As a bottom line, Fauci hopes that the learnings will endure and trigger sustained interest and support for both science and public health. “Otherwise, many of us will spend a lot of time awake in bed or have nightmares while we sleep”he concludes.